Assessing the Impact of Public Health Campaigns Through Epidemiological, Communication and Education Indicators

Abstract

Syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection, is a growing public health concern. Communication strategies have been applied to alert and educate the population of the risks of the disease. This applied study aims to investigate the impact of public health campaigns through several indicators. For this, a tool is being developed to capture, store and analyze this data, in order to make this information available clearly and accurately to decision makers, facilitating the development of new education, communication and disease prevention strategies. A case study is being conducted. Data from the “Syphilis No!” campaign and disease notification data provided by the Ministry of Health in Brazil are being analyzed in conjunction with others indicators, such as the growth of Internet news, social networks messages and interest searches through Google Trends. The results show that the volume of news about the disease is increasing, having peaked during and shortly after the campaign period. In addition, the subject was widely researched on the Internet.